27-year-old Ma Yongjian dropped out of his computer science master’s program last year without telling his parents. This year, he escaped to a slow-paced wandering life in Dali, Yunnan. In the midst of China’s continued economic softness and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the job market, he is one of many young people who have fallen into confusion.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal on October 13, software engineering was once considered a relatively secure career path, but with the rapid development of AI and the wave of layoffs in Chinese tech companies, Ma Yongjian believed he couldn’t find an ideal job, making pursuing a master’s degree seem meaningless.
His parents still think he is pursuing his studies. To avoid worrying his parents, he has kept his dropout a secret. He said, “Looking ahead, I don’t see much hope.”
As more and more Chinese young people reach adulthood, they face decreasing job opportunities, growing competition, and increasing feelings of frustration and defeat. They realize that despite years of hard work, they may not have a better life than their parents’ generation, with some even having to move back in with their parents.
Stable jobs are becoming harder to find, pushing millions of people into the unstable gig economy, while others struggle in high-pressure work environments.
Amid the economic downturn and shrinking job market, a record number of university graduates are entering the workforce. At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party is heavily investing in AI, which, while driving development in some industries, further exacerbates the uncertainty of young people’s job prospects.
Tech giants like Alibaba and ByteDance have been quietly laying off employees recently. Although these companies have not directly attributed their layoffs to AI, it is indeed one of the influencing factors. From filmmaking to finance, industries are also using AI to increase efficiency and reduce hiring.
With the rising unemployment numbers, for many Chinese young people of the “Z generation,” goals of economic independence, stable careers, marriage, and children seem increasingly out of reach.
27-year-old Zhang Tian’s mother hopes she finds a stable job and gets married and has children. But she and her boyfriend of five years are currently unable to consider starting a family, as just getting their careers off the ground has been challenging.
Zhang Tian majored in landscape design in college. However, around her graduation in 2021, the Chinese real estate market bubble burst, causing related industries to slump.
She found her first job at a real estate developer in Hangzhou but was laid off after around six months. She then found an administrative assistant job in Shanghai, but the salary was lower. At the end of last year, she was unemployed again.
“Romance is an emotional matter, but marriage and children are economic issues,” Zhang Tian said. “I feel our financial situation is not sorted out yet, so we are not considering marriage for now.”
She and her boyfriend Cheng Ming plan to learn AI-related knowledge hoping to enter the tech industry. However, even in the tech sector they are hopeful about, stable job opportunities are not guaranteed.
Cheng Ming was laid off by two real estate companies and then started learning software development through online courses. He had found a sales job at a small tech company, but the company closed shortly after, leading to another round of unemployment in April this year.
“There is a deep sense of being pressurized by society inside,” Cheng Ming said, feeling a sense of resignation to fate.
The report noted that a core issue facing the Chinese economy is the failure to create enough stable and well-paying job positions.
In recent years, China’s economic growth has been weak, with growth rates well below pre-pandemic levels. Weak consumer demand has also hindered business hiring, as companies struggle to earn enough profit to hire new employees or raise wages.
Meanwhile, industries supported by CCP policies like robotics are developing rapidly but have limited demand for labor. Additionally, the CCP’s crackdown on private industries such as extracurricular education has impacted sectors that could have absorbed a large number of university graduates.
“This generation faces quite a bleak outlook,” Fred Neumann, Chief Economist for Asia at HSBC, said. “It is currently unclear where high-paying jobs will come from.”
Currently, when faced with difficulties, Chinese young people display more resignation than anger. Many parents continue to financially support their children, helping them with living expenses and temporarily alleviating some pressure.
However, the growing sense of disappointment and disillusionment among young people could bring about greater social risks. If this sentiment continues to accumulate and transform into collective dissatisfaction, it could evolve into societal unrest challenging the CCP authorities.
This employment predicament and pessimism about the future could also have profound implications for China’s long-term development.